HSMTMTS showrunner on why Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale aren't in final season

Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat. But not all of High School Musical's original Wildcats returned for the final season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, during which a fake movie called High School Musical 4: The Reunion was filmed. Whew, did you get all that?!

Everett Collection 'High School Musical'

Now that all eight episodes of the fourth and final season are streaming on Disney+, it's time to talk about the Troy, Gabriella, and Sharpay-sized elephant in the room. While original HSM stars Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, Lucas Grabeel, Kaycee Stroh, Bart Johnson, and Alyson Reed all reprised their characters Chad Danforth, Taylor McKessie, Ryan Evans, Martha Cox, Coach Bolton, and Ms. Darbus for the fake movie, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale did not.

Sorry to all you fans hoping for a last-second surprise appearance of Troy Bolton, Gabriella Montez, and Sharpay Evans after those very suspicious Instagram photos made it seem like they were getting their heads back in the game. But showrunner Tim Federle reveals it's not for a lack of trying!

"It was definitely discussed," he told EW on set last year in Salt Lake City during production on the series finale. "Here's my fully transparent answer: First of all, Zac is busy. He has 20 movies going. Second of all, Ashley's in LA launching a very successful line of products, and she's a new mom, and she's launching her own show at CBS. Vanessa's super busy and so gracious."

Fred Hayes/The Disney Channel/Kobal/Shutterstock Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens in 'High School Musical'

When getting those three to reprise their HSM roles seemed impossible, Federle realized it was actually a good thing in the end.

"Ultimately, I felt like if I bring back too many of the OGs, that's going to be the story," he says. "And I really feel like the story of this series is Josh [Bassett] and Sofia [Wylie] and Dara [Reneé] and Frankie [Rodriguez] and all of them, that they've really risen to take center screen. So the short answer is Vanessa, Zac, and Ashley exist in our universe, but not on our screens."

This interview was conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.

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